A Family To Call My Own - Spinoff
by Red Phoenix Queen
Summary: This is a spin-off story from the A Family To My Own series I'm currently writing.


One night, a huge storm rolled up onto Quantico. There was loud thunder and lightning. Skylar 'Sky' Collins-Hotchner (Hotch's adoptive daughter he adopted her after he and the team saved them from her crazy Uncle Shane Matthews) was sitting up in bed holding her knees and crying. She then remembered a trick she used to do during a storm at her uncle's house, which was find a corner of the room and sit there in a foetal position. She didn't know why but it really helped sometimes. So she got out of bed and sat in the left corner of the room in a foetal position, but for some reason it didn't help so she started weeping into her knees.

At the same time, Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner (Sky's adoptive dad) had woken up and felt that something was wrong. He didn't know what it was and why he felt it, but something inside of him told him something was wrong and he had to go check on Sky. Aaron quickly got out of bed and made his way to Sky's room. Before going in, he heard something inside; he stuck his ear to the door to listen to the sound. It was the sound of someone crying, it was Sky crying. Aaron quietly went into the room so not to startle her and what he saw broke his heart. He saw his daughter sitting in a foetal position and bawling her eyes out. He quickly went to her and out his hand on her shoulder, Sky jumped when she felt the hand, but Aaron quickly took her in his arms to try and calm her down.

"Shhhhh, Sky it's okay, it's okay. You're gonna be okay sweetie, shhh, just calm down." Aaron continued to whisper soothing words in Sky's ear and continued to rub her back until her breathing evened out. She then looked at her father with wet eyes and he smiled at her.

"There we go, you're okay now. Do you want to tell me why you were crying?" Sky just looked down and said nothing.

"Was it a bad dream?" Nothing.

"Was it something you heard?" Still nothing.

Aaron was getting really worried that she wasn't telling him anything. Just then loud thunder crashed and a huge bolt of lightning appeared. They both jumped at the sound and Sky dug her face into Aaron's shoulder and started crying again. At that moment, Aaron realised that Sky had a fear of thunder and lightning.

"Sky? Are you scared of the storm?" Sky just continued to cry into his shoulder. Aaron realised how terrified his daughter was and that he had to comfort her.

"Hey hey, don't be scared, I'm here, I won't let anything hurt you, I promise. Just calm down sweetie, relax, it's okay, shhhh." Aaron kept rubbing her back to soothe her. When she finally calmed down she looked up to her father. Aaron kissed her forehead.

"Hey, do you want to sleep in my room tonight if you're still scared to be alone?" Sky was hesitant, she would've loved nothing more than to be with her father for the night, but she didn't want him to think that she was a baby or that she was being annoying. At that point, she was too scared to think of anything than being with her father until the storm asses. She looked at Aaron and gave him a little nod. Aaron picked her up and took her to his room, and then he placed her in the middle of the bed and got back into bed. He started stroking Sky's hair in an effort to relax her. She looked up to her father with sad green eyes.

"I'm sorry." Aaron gave his daughter a confused look. "For what?" "For waking you, for acting like a big baby." "Hey hey, first of all you are not a big baby. It's okay to be scared of something; everyone is scared of something so you have nothing to worry about. Plus you didn't wake me up either." "Then why were you awake?" Aaron looked at his daughter's curious expression. "My dad senses told me something was wrong so I wanted to check and make sure you was okay." He pulled Sky into a warm embrace and wrapped his arms around her tightly. Sky didn't move for a second slowly taking in her father's warm chest and the sound of his rhythmic beating heart. Sky never felt so safe in her entire life, just being in her father's arms made her feel that there was nothing that could hurt her.

"Goodnight Sky."

"Goodnight Daddy… I-I love you."

Aaron's eyes widened and he looked down at his daughter who had her eyes closed. He couldn't believe it; she had actually told him that she loves him for the first time. Aaron felt like his heart was going to burst with love and his eyes moistened with tears.

"I love you too sweetie, I love you so much." With that Aaron wrapped his arms even tighter around Sky, kissed the top of her head and drifted off to sleep with his daughter in his arms.


End file.
